Generally, a web service is a software application or component that supports machine-to-machine service-based interaction over a network, such as the Internet or another form of network. Typically, each web service provided by a system includes an interface that is described in a Web Services Description Language (WSDL). Other systems, e.g., clients, can interact with the web service by sending requests to the interface, typically in the form of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages formatted in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, and conveyed to the web service using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Some programming language API specifications, such as the Java API for XML Web Services specification (JAX-WS, which is provided as part of the Java EE platform), support the development and deployment of asynchronous web service clients and endpoints. However, JAX-WS and its associated reference implementation primarily address asynchronous threading at the client. Techniques for supporting server-based asynchronous processing of web service requests are also of interest. These are generally the types of environment that embodiments of the invention are intended to be used with.